CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Bee County Sheriff's Department is investigating the grain elevator in Tynan that collapsed, killing one person and injuring two others.
An eyewitness to Tuesday's incident told investigators that one of the three victims was on top of the grain silo, while the other two were on the ground.
The man who died underneath the silo was 37-year-old Sergio Jason Alvarez. His body was found several hours after the collapse. The man on top of the silo is believed to be Ben Mengers and the other man on the ground was Andres Martinez, who are both currently recovering at CHRISTUS Spohn Shoreline.
"The initial investigation is that it is an accident," said Bee County Sheriff Department Chief Deputy Ronnie Jones. "Through investigating we will see if there was any criminal activity but we haven't seen any of that so far."
Jones said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has also been called to assist with the investigation.
"We are not exactly sure what caused the collapse," he said. "Whether it was striking it or just too much in one area equipment, we are not sure, we're looking into that. OSHA is going to be involved in it and we're working on that as well."
Bee County Commissioner Tino Olivares was on scene immediately after the accident. He expressed his admiration for the rescue effort, as approximately 250 emergency personnel and other Good Samaritans from across the area arrived to help extract the victims from the tons of corn surrounding them.
"Thank God there was a lot of support that was given. I was extremely impressed by the amount of supporting entities that we got from other counties," he said.
Assistant Beeville Fire Chief Ryan Garza was in charge of the scene and said the emergency was like no other.
"We try to prepare as best as we can but we can't prepare for everything. So there's no tool that would have helped us anymore than good old broken backs just pulling up and using shovels to scoop out as much of that grain as they could," he said.
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